MANILA, April 15 (Reuters) - The European Union called on the Philippines on Friday to adopt a reproductive health policy, a measure staunchly opposed by the powerful Catholic Church, saying slower population growth would improve health and lower poverty.
The EU will provide 35 million euros (${esc.dollar}50 million) over four years to support health system reforms, including raising contraceptive usage in low-income, rural communities.
"We have always been very clear in supporting reproductive health rights," Nicholas Taylor, head of operations at the European Union delegation office in Manila, told a news conference on Friday.
"It is important for governments to make family planning available. And that is not being done efficiently. It will be much more effectively done if the reproductive health bill is passed because that gives a legal framework for driving it much more effectively."
Two weeks ago, a United Nations delegation also called on the Philippines to introduce a reproductive health policy to lower its high maternal death rate -- an average of 11 women die in the country each day giving birth. [ID:nL3E7F11R9]
Efforts to enact a law that would promote access to sex education and contraception have been blocked since the 1990s by the Church. Around 80 percent of Filipinos are Catholic.
The Church says tackling corruption would do more to reduce poverty than slowing growth of a population that is nearing 100 million.
Taylor said former president Fidel Ramos, the country's only Protestant leader, had a strong family planning policy, but his successors did not promote contraceptive use.
President Benigno Aquino had indicated support for the bill, raising hopes it could be passed, but the measure was not on a list of priority bills submitted to Congress. [ID:nSGE72706F]
Taylor said the 27-member European bloc's funding from 2011 to 2014 would be used by local government units to purchase equipment and supplies, such as medicines and contraceptives.
The target was to raise the contraceptive prevalence rate -- the percentage of women aged 15 to 49 who are using or whose partner are using a modern method of contraception -- to 54.4 percent by 2013.
In 2009, the Philippines' contraceptive use was at 38.5 percent. It is aiming to raise it up to 80 percent by 2015 based on its U.N. Millennium Development Goal commitment. (${esc.dollar}1 = 0.693 Euros) (Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by John Mair)
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